In making continuous filaments, the fibers are generally collected by winding them up on a bobbin or cylindrical core (a "tubecore") to form a wound package. For making spandex, surface-driven winders such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,165,274 and 3,342,428 have generally been used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,125 discloses a two-position spindle-and-turret winder having a traverse mechanism and rotatable bail roller mounted on an arm. However, the system disclosed has a only a single winding position and therefore must be made excessively bulky when large packages are to be wound. Further, because the traverse arm is mounted horizontally and above the spindles, in the event of a power failure, the dead weight of the traverse arm could seriously damage the spindles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,067 discloses a spindle-and-turret winder having a substantially fixed contact roll and traverse guide in which a very low elongation fiber is fed directly to the nip between the contact roll and package while the turret rotates continuously to accommodate the growing package. The continuous movement of the turret during the winding requires a complex mechanism and controls for successful winding. Further, such continuous movement causes a full package not to be in a fixed position, which can make it difficult to doff, especially by automated means.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,526,995 and 5,029,762 disclose a winder having a contact roll whose position remains substantially unchanged during winding and a turret that rotates substantially continuously during the building of the package. The continually rotating turret requires complex controls for winding filaments. As with U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,125, the weight of the traverse arm could seriously damage the spindles in the event of a power failure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,904 discloses a winder for elastomeric fibers which has a single winding position and requires a lifting box, which makes this winder undesirably tall. In addition, the movable arm must be cantilevered, so it is insufficiently rigid and therefore the life of the pivot is unsatisfactorily short.
The present invention provides a compact winder for continuous synthetic fibers.